Percy Jackson and the Mortal Instruments: High School
by SilentHuntress24
Summary: The demigods and shadowhunters are forced to go to high school, and both groups end up enrolled at Goode. When the groups end up meeting, will they become friends, or will their differences (and Jace) cause them to become enemies? Includes evil-eyed ducks, revenge seeking spiders, a donut obsessed pegasus and a very sparkly warlock. Oh, and some very angry eternal maidens. Enjoy!
1. Point Objects are Evil

Percy's POV:

Only three things existed. Me, my feet on the ground, and the angry thing in hot pursuit of me. Well, four, if you considered the fear of losing my own life, and the complete terror I was consumed with. Or was that five? You know what, I have more important things to worry about, like my life.

All I could hear was my own breathing and my feet pounding on the hard pavement below me as I weaved through the crowd, pushing people past as I stumbled away from what was chasing me.

There, a few blocks ahead, I saw it. Goode High School, my saviour. If I could get to the spot where Piper, Jason and the others sat, I would be safe. Only one problem: to get there, I would have to cross the entire yard, and she was faster.

After a little more running, I made it to school grounds, and I felt a glimmer of hope as I saw my friends waving to me. But my moment was short-lived, as I felt someone tackle me from behind. They pulled me to my feet, judo-flipped me, and pressed their forearm to my throat. I looked up to see the steely grey eyes of my pursuer.

"Seaweed Brain, you have three seconds to give me my dagger, otherwise this tree branch _will_ impale you." My wonderful girlfriend hissed through her teeth, her blond hair flowing behind her.

"Fine, Wisegirl. You win." I sat up, and pulled her Celestial bronze dagger out of my backpack.

"Thank you." She snatched her dagger out of my hand before someone could see it, and she slipped it into her own bag.

After helping me up, she gave me a kiss and pulled me towards our friends. They were all laughing their butts off.

"What was that all about?" Jason managed between laughs.

"Well, this Seaweed Brain thought it would be a good idea to steal my dagger, and I chased him all the way here from his mom's apartment. But it was well worth it, since I got my dagger back, and I got to teach him a lesson about not touching my stuff."

"Annabeth, I respect how you handle your boyfriend. Nice tree branch work." Reyna said.

I huffed. "Pointy objects are evil, just for the record. They're all stabby and sharp, and... umm... pointy."

Everyone laughed, and I huffed in annoyance, before joining in with my friends.

Jace Herondale:

"Absolutely not!" I shouted, grabbing my sword off the wall and turning to face my _parabatai_.

I heard Alec sigh from the doorway. "Honestly, Jace, must you make everything a production? Just get your butt out of the training room, before I drag you out!"

"One, you sound like mom, and two, I am not going to Mundane school with a bunch of people who think they're better than the all amazing and all perfect Jace Herondale!"

Alec rolled his eyes. "One, it's because I'm a parent, and two, Jace, it's just school. I have two kids under the age of six and you don't see me trying to stab someone with a sword. You're not going to die." I opened my mouth to protest, but Alec continued. "Besides, if you don't go, Maryse will kill you, Clary will be upset with you, and the Clave will be beside itself by a shadowhunter disobeying direct orders."

"Fine," I sighed. "But don't expect me to be happy about it!" I cried after him.

After a quick shower, I got dressed, tossing my favourite leather jacket over my shoulder, and I hid a few seraph blades in my shoes, you know, just in case. After going into the bathroom, I pulled out my hairbrushes and got to work. Perfection such as myself doesn't just happen, you know.

I grabbed my stele off my bedside table and bolted out of my room. I ran about halfway down the stairs before jumping the railing, and grabbing some food from the kitchen.

I cautiously took a nibble at the edge, thanking the Angel when it tasted like something Maryse made instead of Isabelle. I really did not need to throw up that day.

Alec and Isabelle came down the stairs together a few minutes later, with Alec wearing new clothes that Isabelle had obviously picked and forced him into.

There was no way that Alec, my shopping-hating and old-hole-ridden-sweater-loving _parabatai_ , would ever, ever, be caught dead in the tight jeans and leather jacket he was forced into. There was also no way he actually had the time or energy to gel his hair, since he had to make his way over here from his apartment in Brooklyn before we left. He looked so uncomfortable in the clothes he was wearing, it took my entire willpower not to laugh in his face.

Izzy, on the other hand, seemed perfectly comfortable in her ridiculously high heels and ridiculously short skirt.

"Finally, you guys take forever. But I guess I'm not complaining, there's no need to be earlier than we have to be!"

Izzy glared at me, then turned her glare to Alec, who was looking incredibly unamused in a very Alec-ish way. "It's not my fault he refused to listen to me! It took me an hour, two dozen shirts, a few bottles of hair gel, and a rope to get him to look how he does!"

"Don't forget about the deal we cut, Izzy. She can pick my clothes -so long as they are _reasonable_ \- for a month, and in return, she won't cook any meals. Happy late birthday, Jace." Alec said.

I grinned. "I have the best _parabatai_ in existence. Now, I suppose we should go." I sighed again. One day I would become head of this damn institute and then I could debate these sort of stupid ideas with the clave. Their newest young shadowhunters did not need education on the mundane world. And on top of that, the Clave being the Clave, could not come up with a damn verdict before that day leaving us to start school three days late. _Great_ _way not to draw attention to us,_ I sarcastically thought.

We all headed out the door without me speaking another word.

* * *

 **A/N: Hey guys, I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter! This is the first story I have posted on this sight, so I truly hope all of you enjoy it. Please, don't hesitate to review it. The more I hear from you guys, the better a writer I become. Before getting into the next chapter, here is some information I think is important for all readers to understand.**

 **-Malec has both of their children**

 **-I am keeping all the canon couples (including Solangelo).**

 **-Simon has gotten his memories back, and has ascended. He is now a full fledged Shadowhunter who bears marks, and is Clary's parabatai.**

 **-Some of the ages are a little off. I tried to keep it as close as possible, but I had to switch things around a little bit for the purposes of the story. Grade 12- Alec, Annabeth, Percy. Grade 11- No One. Grade 10-Jace, Izzy, Simon, Clary, Nico, Will, Jason, Piper, Leo, Frank and Reyna. Grade 9- Hazel. I apologize if the ages are not completely accurate.**


	2. And so it Begins!

Alec's POV:

Some guy shoved me from behind, and I stumbled forward a few steps, catching myself before I could fall.

I looked to see a guy with unruly black hair run as if his life depended on it, and I glared at the back of his receding head. Why on Earth was he running so fast? If I were him, I'd slow down. Then I saw the blond girl chasing him, and I decided that, if I were him, I'd run twice as fast.

She was holding a tree branch in her hand like a knife, it's end filed to a sharp point. The way she held it obviously showed some form of training, just because of the way her grip was, and the fact that she was twirling it around as she ran, never once dropping it. Her eyes were fixed on the guy with the black hair, and she dodged around people, unlike him, skillfully, as if she were used to moving around people while holding something sharp.

When she reached him, she tackled him, pulled him to his feet, then flipped him over her shoulder.

Some words were exchanged, until the guy pulled something out of his pack and the girl quickly put it in hers. Then the two of them got up, kissed, and walked over to a group of people, who were all laughing at the guy.

As we walked closer, I saw something behind the smiles. Sure, they were happy, but in the boy with the black hair and the blond girl's eyes, I could see darkness. Perhaps it comes from 18 years of seeing people who have fought battles, or perhaps it comes as someone who has seen a lot of darkness himself, but I know someone who has been through suffering when I see it.

"Alec. ALEC!" I jumped, as Izzy shouted in my ear.

"What?" I yelled back.

She rolled her eyes at me. "The first bell just rang, you idiot. Here's your schedule. I printed it this morning. You've got English first period with Mr. Blofis. Have fun!"

I made a rude gesture at her, before making my way through the school. I looked at my sheet, and made my way to my locker. It was located right outside Mr. Blofis' classroom, and I quickly put everything I wouldn't need in there before running into the room before the second bell.

I would have taken a seat at the back of the room, but Mr. Blofis insisted I come up to the front and introduce myself once everyone arrived, and while I was now comfortable and confident in myself, strangers were just not my thing.

At the very last second before the bell rang, the boy with the black hair and the blond girl both made their way into the classroom.

"Hey Pa-Mr. Blofis!" Black hair said.

"Hello, Percy. Nice to see you, Annabeth. I see that Percy does not have a tree branch in him, so he must have returned the thing he stole?" Mr. Blofis asked.

"Yup. Got it in my backpack." She smiled at Mr. Blofis, and my instincts, and the fact that I'm not stupid, told me that they knew each other outside of school.

"Alright class!" Mr. Blofis called, gathering everyone's attention. "We have a new student here today, and I'd like for him to introduce himself."

He gestured to me, in a way that said _'the floor is yours_ ', and I nervously stepped into the front of the room.

 **Annabeth's POV:**

It was odd. The boy at the front of the room looked like the classic, stereotypical jock or player that was in every single teen romance novel out there. The tight shirt, leather jacket, gelled hair and the dark black tattoos snaking around his entire body led me to this conclusion, except his attitude told a different story. He didn't exude arrogance, like all the other teen book characters. In fact, he just seemed nervous.

Personally, I found it amusing. It was obvious that at least half the girls in the class were already taken by his looks; you could see it in the wistful look in their eyes, the whispering that ensued as soon he stepped in, and the furtive glances they were all casting him. Even I must admit, he was attractive, with his black hair and blue eyes, though not in the conventional way.

Where Percy was all bronze, broad-shouldered and brash, this boy was porcelain white and lean, like a dancer, with an innate grace to him. Where Percy could be defined as (at least in my opinion) hot, this boy was simply beautiful. His long lashes scraped his high cheekbones when he blinked, and I could see each movement he made, no matter how minute, managed to look graceful and fluid, as if this boy was made for the purpose of elegance and ease of movement. Though below that, I could see a hardness in his soft blue eyes, a definition and tenseness in his muscles, a litheness to his build, like a panther ready to strike. Below that beauty was power, easy to spot if you knew what you were looking for.

Despite all this, he still looked uncomfortable. There was something about his demeanor, as if he were asking _'why are you looking at me? Why are you paying attention to me? Please stop paying attention' ._ It was as if he either didn't know about his attractiveness or didn't want other people to notice it.

"My name's Alec Lightwood." He said, shifting from foot to foot.

I couldn't help but notice the way his eyes scanned the room, as if looking for trouble, or how his footsteps were so light, you couldn't even hear them.

"Is Alec short for something?" Paul asked, trying to get Alec to talk a little more.

"Um, it's Alexander, but nobody ever uses my full name."

Percy grinned beside me. I groaned, "And so it begins." All Percy ever talked about was how there needed to be more people like him who didn't use their full name, because, and I quote "No one understands me!" Honestly, he's such a Seaweed Brain.

"And what school did you go to before Goode?"

"I've actually been homeschooled for the past eighteen years. But my teacher recently-uh-quit, so my parents decided it would be good to enroll me in a school for the last year of high school." I narrowed my eyes at that statement. I sensed there was some truth to it, but I was a good judge of lies, and something was definitely missing from that statement. I decided to drop it, since his life has nothing to do with my own.

"Great," Paul's voice snapped my out of my thoughts. "Why don't you go sit in the desk next to Annabeth, the girl with the blond hair and grey eyes-Annabeth, wave-" I waved, " and we'll get started on today's lesson. Have you already learned about Shakespeare?"

"I touched on it, but not much." He answered before sitting next to me.

I smiled and waved at him, and he waved back, looking mildly confused.

I let myself look at him, scan his face and his posture. Reading people was a survival skill, and one I happened to possess. From the way he sat up straight, eyes flicking back and forth, it almost seemed like he was looking for someone, or something, I suppose.

But I would be able to somewhat sense if he was a demigod, and I hadn't seen him in the war or after it. As well, almost everything I could see didn't lend itself to demigod traits. While he looked around, he wasn't jumpy, in the way many demigods are, especially loners, and I could see the outline of a phone in his back pocket, almost a sure sign that he wasn't a demigod.

"Alright," I snapped my attention back up to Paul, who was explaining our next assignment. "I'm going to partner you guys up, and your going to and analyze this passage by Shakespeare. Then, I want you guys to try and write your own story in a Shakespearean style."

Percy leaned over to me, "I hope he got us a copy in Greek," He whispered. I felt myself smile.

As Paul was handing out the sheets, he leaned over to me. "Do you mind working with Alec?"

"Sure," I smiled up at Paul, "Out of curiosity, why me?"

"You know what it's like to show up at a new school, with no friends in your class, and be assigned a partner project the first day. We also both know that he would get nothing done with Percy, and if he's behind on Shakespeare, he's going to need all the intelligence he can get. And while I love my stepson very much, and while he has so many wonderful qualities and such amazing instincts, his level of understanding in this particular class is, um, _lacking_." I had to stifle a laugh, and Percy sent me a sideways glance.

"Very true."

I turned towards Alec. "Would you like to be my partner?"

"Why me?" He asked, looking around. "There are so many other people to partner with, including the guy I'm assuming is your boyfriend." So he reads people and relationships too. Good to know.

"Lets just say that I know what it's like to be the new kid, and not have a partner." I explained. "Plus, working with my idiotic boyfriend, I probably would get nothing done."

He smiled slightly, and that was the beginning of very important friendship, though we didn't know it yet.


	3. Pound, Pound, Pound

Simon's POV:

I officially hated math class. Not only was it just not my favourite subject, and not only did the teacher suck, but there was this boy, Leo I believe was his name, that would not stop tapping. _Tap, tap, tap, tap_ went his fingers on the desk, and _pound, pound, pound, pound_ , my fist wanted to go on his face.

Thankfully, I had enough restraint to hold back, and besides, the girl beside him looked like she could beat the crap out of me. She was pretty, but not in the same way Isabelle was. To start with, Izzy was prettier (though that may have just been my biased opinion), but while Izzy played up her beauty with her style, glossy hair and perfect makeup, this girl played it down, cutting her hair choppy and leaving her face completely bare.

Every time I glared at Leo, or so much as clenched my fist, she would give me a glare that scared the hell out of me. It was Isabelle level, that's how scary it was.

"Simon, you good?" I jumped, and turned to where Clary sat.

"Ya, I'm good. The tapping is just _really annoying_." I replied, stressing the words _really_ and _annoying_ and hoping Leo got the message.

"Dude, no need for subtlety. If you got something to say to the Super Sized McShizzle, you say it to my face." Super Sized McShizzle? You know what, I don't want to know.

"Alright. Stop tapping your pencil on the desk. It's annoying."

He grinned up at me in his impish way, "Ok!"

For a few minutes, it worked, and I was able to focus on my math, but my luck would not hold out. After about five minutes, his foot started tapping on the floor.

As soon as the teacher left the room to go grab something from the photo copy room, I was up on my feet. "Seriously? First the pencil, now the foot? Really?" I'm normally a pretty chill dude, but one thing I hate is when people continue to do something after being asked to stop.

Clary rose beside me, sensing my annoyance. "Simon, chill."

"You would be wise to listen to your friend." The girl said, also standing. I could hear the "or else" in her tone, even though she didn't say it.

"Are you threatening us?" I actually did growl this time. No one hurt or threatened Clary.

"Now why would I do that? I'm simply telling you to listen to your friend, and leave my best friend alone."

"Well then make him stop tapping!"

"I can't do that. Believe me, I've tried." She sighed, and I swear she muttered something about spending weeks on a boat with him. "He's seriously high ADHD, and it's either tap, or something will probably be set on fire. Just do what I do, and either put in earbuds or drown him out." _That sounds reasonable_ , I thought.

"You drown me out? Beauty Queen," she shot Leo a glare, "sorry, _Piper_ , but that's just cold." He shook his head at her then grinned, as if he made some amazing joke.

I ignored Leo's bad jokes, huffed, but nonetheless agreed to calm down.

"WHAT IS THIS?!" A high voice shrieked. I internally groaned. The stupid teacher was back. "STUDENTS OUT OF THEIR SEATS! EEK! WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?"

I opened my mouth, thinking up an excuse, but the other girl beat me to it. "Leo dropped his pencil, and it rolled over here. Clary got up to help Leo find it, and I was just asking Simon over here if my answer to number six was correct. There's no need to punish us, Miss." Her tone changed a little over the last sentence, taking on a richer, smoother, and more intoxicating tone.

The teacher's eyes seemed to almost glaze over, and she nodded at us and walked back to her desk. _Peculiar._ I thought.

I dwelled on the girl, Piper, and her powerful voice, while doing my math homework, and glaring at the back of Leo's head as he continued to _tap, tap, tap_ away.


	4. He Smiled, Make Sure Pigs Aren't Flying!

Nico's POV:

Five minutes into the day, and I already wished I had not agreed to come to this stupid school. Hazel and I had only arrived from Los Angeles the night before after seeing our father for a few days. I hoped she was doing ok in her classes. I thought about seeing my father and immediately wished I could be back with him instead of with the overly peppy and arrogant people I was with now.

"Nico, maybe you should loosen up on the glare?" Jason suggested. " I think you're about to make that beaker explode."

I softened my glare a little bit, but I didn't stop. "Sorry, no can do Jason. That stupid teacher is annoying me. In fact, all the people in this _school_ are annoying me."

"Wow Nico, tell me how you really feel, because that felt great." Jason muttered.

I actually did stop glaring for a second. "Oh not you, Jason. The only one of our friends I find annoying is Leo, and everyone finds him annoying. It's just the other people in this school. They all think they're better than everyone else around them. The prime example is sitting right in front of us."

And you know what, it was true. In front of me sat the other new boy, Jace Herondale. His blonde hair was obviously carefully styled, and his golden eyes unnerved me, making me think of Kronos. As well, there seemed to be a permanent smirk etched onto his face, as if he was saying _'I'm the best, and everyone knows it.'_ I don't think, in the hour I'd known him, I'd ever seen him without the smirk. It was like a permanent fixture. He walked around like he owned the place, even though he just got there. His arrogance levels were through the roof, and don't even get me started on his ego. It could probably fill Zues, Poseidon, and Hades' domains _combined_ , that's how big it was.

And then there's the girl he walked in with, Isabelle. While she didn't exude as much arrogance, she certainly did confidence. She teetered above all of us with her probably eleven inch heels, and I'm pretty sure her skirt was not in the dress code. Then again, dress codes are stupid.

Both of their bodies were covered in snaking tattoos of black ink. Something about the tattoos tugged at mind, a memory from my explorations of the Underworld, but I just couldn't grasp it.

"Yo, Neeks, just chill," Jason said, pulling me from my thoughts. "It's no worse then being around Piper's, or even _Will's_ , siblings , so just suck it up." Jason said, stretching out Will's name in an annoyingly suggestive way.

Instead of glaring at the beaker, I glared at Jason. "Shut up, Jason, just shut up."

"Or else what?" He goaded.

"Or else, or else, umm, I'll send you to my father, the hard way." I was tired, ok?

"That's all you've got, Neeks?"

"Fine. I'll tell Thalia what you called her hunter, you know, the new one, Adrianna, after she shot you in the leg for hugging Thalia," I threatened.

His eyes widened, "You wouldn't."

I smirked, "I would."

"You know, it's not nice to threaten your friends." Jace called from in front of me, and I could practically hear the smirk in his voice.

"Jace, mind your own business." Isabelle said from beside him, bless her soul.

"Who are you, Alec?" Jace countered. Wonder who this Alec guy is. He sounds tolerable. "Come on Izzy, don't turn into our annoyingly sensible and practical brother."

Clearly, he got the common sense of the family. "Jace, you know I'm usually all down for fun, and I'm almost never sensible nor practical, but honestly, do you want us to get suspended on our first day? You do remember that there are people who will be really pissed if we got suspended or expelled, right?"

"I hate it when you're right." Jace plopped down in front of me,his body deflated, and I thanked Isabelle.

"It's no problem. I get how can be _extremely annoying,_ " She shot at Jace.

"Hey!" Jace said defensively. "I'm not that annoying! And I'm sure Clary and Alec would agree."

"Ok, if you say so." She told him. Then to me, she leaned back and whispered, "By the way, Alec totally finds him annoying sometimes, and so does Clary, who's his girlfriend, for God's sake. She's practically obligated to not find him annoying." I cracked a rare smile. It was tiny, but it was there.

Jason's eyes widened in wonder. He was probably thinking _'Nico smiled? He smiled! Make sure pigs aren't flying, check if the moon still isn't blue, see if the sun is rising in the West, and make sure hell isn't freezing over!'_ Or maybe simply just, _'How'd she do that?'_.

Jason's thoughts will forever remain a mystery.


	5. The Caramel Ostrich Egg Incident

Isabelle's POV:

"Alec! Wait a sec!" I called, trying to catch up with Alec, who was walking beside a blond girl, and next to her was a kid who, from the back, looked startlingly similar to Alec, with messy black hair, and about the same height. He said something to the blond girl, and they both turned to me. I drew in a breath.

The girl's eyes were a startling shade of grey, like the adamas of a seraph blade, coursing with the power of the angels, or like the demon towers of Alicante, sparkling in the sun. The boy's eyes were like someone poured green and blue paint and swirled it around until it was the exact colour of the sea.

"Isabelle, this is Annabeth and her boyfriend, Percy. They're in my English class. Annabeth, Percy, this is my younger sister, Isabelle." Alec introduced, putting his arm around my shoulder and hugging me from the side.

I smiled and stuck out my hand, and Annabeth smiled back and shook it. I noted the thick calluses on her hands, similar to the ones that decorated the hands of the Angel's Warriors. Almost identical to the ones that were painted upon my hands. They were invisible to the eye, and most could not identify them as calluses by touch. One could only get calluses like that from years of practice in wielding a blade. From training day in and day in the art of sword fighting. From the careful, firm grip of a sword or dagger. How on earth did a mundane like Annabeth get the calluses of a seasoned warrior? Of a Shadowhunter?

Her grip was firm, and I could feel the strength she was harbouring from the handshake. I could tell she felt my strength as well.

I also noted the way her smile, as well as Percy's, didn't quite reach their eyes. It was the same smile Alec smiled right after we lost Max. The smile itself was normal enough, but the eyes told a different story. I'd grown up with Alec, someone who, while most of his thoughts and feelings were evident on his face, would always hide hurt. The kind of person that smiled fake smiles and said everything was fine, when it wasn't, when he was hurting or in pain. To understand and be there for my own brother, I had to learn quickly, to learn young, that it was the eyes that told the story. It was someone's eyes that could tell you how much pain they were in and what kind of hurt they were feeling. Percy and Annabeth's eyes were filled with the kind of hurt that comes from loved ones lost.

"Jason, I swear, I'm going to KILL YOU!" A voice yelled across the hallway, pulling me from my thoughts. The voice belonged to Nico, the boy who sat behind me in science class. I swear, he's always arguing with that Jason kid. God knew he was in class.

"By the Angel, do those two ever stop fighting?" I muttered.

"Why do you say that?" Alec asked.

"They're both in my science class, and Nico was threatening him there too."

Percy rolled his eyes. "Sadly, they don't." He knew them? "Nico and Jason have a complicated relationship. Now, could you tell me what Nico threatened Jason with? Because I need to know just how badly Nico wants to kill Jason."

"Nico said something about telling someone named Thalia something Jason called one of her hunters when she shot him in the leg. I have no clue what it means though."

By the look of horror on Percy and Annabeth's faces, they obviously knew what that meant. "Oh Gods. If he 's threatening a fate worse than death itself, I better go get involved. If you'll excuse me for a moment, I have to make sure my cousins don't kill each other, or have Nico get Jason's sister to do it for him. I'll be right back."

By this point, almost everyone in the hallway was staring, as Nico and Jason had started a fist fight. Well, more like Nico started a fist fight. Jason kind of just stood there, taking the hits and laughing, until about a minute in, when he apparently got bored of standing there, and joined in.

It was probably one of the strangest things I'd ever seen. Two boys, one way shorter than the other, punching each other while laughing their heads off. I'd never even seen Jace and Alec do that, and one of them was Jace. Wait, scratch that, I have seen Alec beat up Jace while laughing his head off.

"Ooh, did things finally get interesting?" Jace asked, coming up beside me, his ever present smirk on his face.

"If by interesting you mean watching two of my best friend's brothers and my boyfriend's cousins try to kill each other, than yes, things did." Annabeth said dryly.

"This is great! But the punches are weak. If Nico angled his body a little to the right, and leaned forward a little more into his punches, then he could've broken Jason's nose by now. God knows I would have." Jace commented.

"Really Jace? Is that all you think about, the technique of fighting?" Alec asked. "You know what, don't answer that. I already know the answer."

"Hey Annabeth, have you seen Nico?" A girl asked, coming up behind us.

"Yes. Honestly Hazel, I'm surprised you haven't. Percy just went over to make sure your brother doesn't kill Jason." Nico and Hazel looked absolutely nothing alike, but then again neither did Clary and Sebastian. Although being a psychopath does seem to somewhat alter appearances.

Hazel rolled her eyes. "Again?" She said this as if it was a daily occurrence, which it seemed it be. "Honestly, you'd think Nico would have gotten over this by now, or Jason would have learned to leave him alone. Especially after the the caramel ostrich egg incident." Both Hazel and Annabeth seemed to shudder involuntarily.

"Did one of you say caramel ostrich egg? I thought we all swore never to speak of that again." Another girl said. Her hair, black, just like mine, was braided and fell over her right shoulder, and her dark eyes glittered under the sunlight coming through the window. She held herself in a way that suggested almost royalty, and demanded respect. She kind of reminded me of myself, in a way. She seemed strong, fierce, confident in herself, a warrior. Even though I didn't even know her, I liked her already.

"Alright you two," Percy yelled suddenly, causing me and many other people to jump. His laid back, easy smile was instead replaced by a stern look. "This is the fifth time this week I've had to keep you from killing each other! Just because our dads despise each other and just because Jason's dad is a jerk-" thunder boomed outside and I exchanged a glance with Alec and Jace, who looked as confused and startled as I was. There was seldom a cloud in the sky, let alone any rain. I could tell my brothers were thinking the same thing I was. Something unnatural caused that. "-oh, shut up drama queen-" Who on Earth was he talking to? "-doesn't mean we have to fight all the time!"

Nico glared at Percy, and turned to look at Jason, "Tag team?"

"Tag team," Jason confirmed, before they both launched themselves at Percy. I thought he would lose, but he was holding his own. After about a minute, he had both Jason and Nico pinned to the lockers.

"We lost again!" Jason sighed.

"We really need to get better." Nico agreed.

"Good, I'm glad you two can agree on something. Now, we should all get to class." Percy said, and quickly turned on his heel and marched straight back to us. Behind Percy, I could see Nico giving Percy the finger, and Jason laughing.

"Well, that's done. It was nice meeting you Isabelle." He waved to me. "Oh, and you too random dude." He said to Jace. "Now, off to class. Alec, you coming?"

Alec nodded, and waved goodbye to us.

Well then, that just happened. Ok then.

"I don't know how I feel about that Percy guy." I silently agreed with Jace, although he must be a fairly good guy if he could get Alec as a friend in one period. "But I have to admit, he has some technique there." I rolled my eyes, and walked away, leaving an annoyed and flabbergasted Jace to catch up.


	6. Significant Annoyance

Clary's POV:

Finally, gym class. Even though it's only second period, I have all of this pent up energy inside of me that I am used to getting rid of through training. I never thought that I would say this, but I am incredibly excited for gym class. Almost as excited as I am to see Izzy in a gym uniform.

She came out of the change room looking stylishly miserable. Her black hair was carefully tossed up into a high ponytail, a few pieces free around her face. A pair of black Nike Roshe running shoes laced her feet, and her wrist had been stripped of all bracelets, including her electrum whip.

"I honestly don't understand who designed these things. They're so ugly!" She moaned, adjusting the blue t-shirt that scratched both our skins. "Not to mention the impracticality of it!"

"Tell me about it," a girl near us mumbled, causing us to turn. Her black hair was woven into a tight braid down her back, and she too, like Isabelle, magically made the ugly t-shirt look somewhat decent, at the least. Some might even dare to say that they made it look good. When she caught us looking, she continued. "The fabric isn't flexible, it scratches your skin whenever you move, it's a t-shirt, so pit stains, it's hotter and less mobility. Not to mention the obvious fact that they managed to find a blue that is ugly, an almost impossible feat."

"Finally, a girl who gets it." Isabelle muttered, then offered her hand. "I'm Isabelle by the way. You were in the hall during the fight, right?"

The girl gripped Isabelle's hand, "Reyna, and yes I was."

"I'm Clary," I offered.

"Nice to meet you both." Reyna said, but before any of us could reply, the coach blew her whistle.

"For the new students we have today, welcome to Phys-Ed! I'm Ms. Harris, and here are some quick ground rules. No jeans of any kind can be won during gym class, even if they're shorts. Leggings, sweatpants, joggers, athletic shorts, whatever are fine, but no jeans, skirts or dresses. You must wear your Goode High School athletic t-shirt in gym class, and running shoes are a must. I am strong believer of effort. If you participate, have a good attitude, and try your best, you will walk away from this class with an 85 minimum, and if you even show the slightest glimmer of athleticism, such as being able to catch a ball, you can probably go out with a 90." Once upon a time, the prospect of a high mark with no athletic ability would have made me so happy. Now, I didn't even have to worry about my athletic ability.

"Today, we will be with the grade 10 boys gym class, for a simple game of dodge ball. Their teacher and I are good friends, so we will probably doing more classes with them throughout the year. First we will join the boys for some quick introductions."

Right on cue, the boys entered the doors, and I could see Jace trudging at the back, looking dejected, and I spotted the guy Isabelle pointed out, Nico, talking to a really burly asian guy and a blond one. Every time the blond said something, Nico would smile or laugh.

"Alright boys! Circle up!" All the boys created a circle, and after a hand motion from Ms. Harris, we did as well. "Just go around and say your names."

After about five minutes, my head was swimming with names, but I did learn the blond dude was Will and the asian one was Frank. "That must be the Will some guy named Jason was teasing Nico about in science last period." Isabelle whispered, earning her an unexplained glare from Reyna.

"Now, who's ready for a dodge ball tournament?" Ms. Harris yelled, leading to some cheering and whooping. "This is going to be a simple boys vs. girls. There will be two boys teams, who will face off, and two girls teams, who will face off. The winners of both matches will face each other, and the losers of both matches will face each other. Let's see whose the best!" She cheered, before whispering, "Girls", to those around her.

Ms. Harris split us into teams, and Reyna, Isabelle and I all managed to be on one team. No way would we lose with someone as formidable as Isabelle, and, from the looks of her, Reyna too. Not to mention me.

Jace was on the same team as Frank, Will and Nico, and I had a suspicion it would end up being our team against their's.

The boys played and then the girls played, leaving me to be right. The losing boys and girls teams played for third place, leaving the girls as winner.

After only a few minutes of the championship game, the only people left on the court were Jace, Nico, Frank and Will from the boys and Isabelle, Reyna and me from the girls. All of us had been holding back, I think expecting this.

"Hey Frank," Reyna called, "May the best child of war win!"

Frank cracked a grin and replied, "May the best one win."

I gave her a confused look, "Both of our parents were in the army," she explained. I was still sceptical, but she was right. Her and Frank were warriors. I didn't realize how much the two were holding back until a ball Frank threw crashed a heavy mat to the floor, and until Reyna literally dove over a ball, caught it, rolled, and came up throwing.

Of course, Jace and Isabelle were putting on quite the show as well, especially Jace, who just couldn't help but backflip out of the way. Showoff. I, on the other hand, was playing like a normal human being (which I was not), along with Nico and Will. It took a while, but I finally managed to get Will out, though Nico got me out soon after, and I took a seat next to Will. That kid may look small, but his throws pack a punch. Reyna, however, knocked Nico out only seconds later, and he glared at her as he walked off and plopped down next to Will, who laughed as Nico grumbled something about daughters and war.

"I'm Clary," I said, sticking my hand out.

"Nico," though he did not offer his hand a shake.

"I'm Will," he shook my outstretched hand, "and Nico, we need to have another talk about your people skills."

Nico grumbled something in response that sound along the lines of "touching" and "hands" and "no".

Will sighed, "I apologize for my boyfriend." That explained the smiles and laughs only Will could get from Nico.

Nico made a strange strangled sound at the back of his throat, and rolled his eyes. "Could you not-"

"Would you prefer _special guy_?" Will asked. "Or _significant other_?"

"Significant _annoyance_ , in your case," Nico grumbled.

"Oh, I'll get you for that."

I stifled a laugh at they're bickering, and turned my eyes back to the game. Unsurprisingly, Reyna, Isabelle, Jace and Frank were still in, though I did catch the moment when Reyna sent a ball flying at Frank that he almost avoided, but clipped on the back of his giant calf. Honestly, I'm surprised he made it that long, with all of his heavy muscle making him a larger target.

This left Reyna, Isabelle and Jace on the court, and I was unsurprised when none of them could get another out. Jace, with his natural born grace, Izzy with her years of training and fighting and Reyna with whatever magical force made her as she was, made them all impossible to beat.

In the midst of it, Reyna caught Isabelle's eye, and both stopped throwing. "I propose a truce!" Reyna called, baffling me and everyone else. "It's clear neither of us can win, so I'd like to call a truce." Jace gracefully accepted, going up to shake her hand.

Something was off. Reyna did not seem like- and Isabelle definitely wasn't- someone to quit-or lose. My suspicion was confirmed when, as Reyna prepared to shake Jace's hand, a ball came flying from Isabelle's hand and smashed into his abdomen. Reyna grinned as Jace looked down at his stomach as if he had been stabbed.

"I guess we have a winner!" Ms. Harris called, as the boys coach slipped her a twenty. "Tomorrow will be capture the flag!" Nico and Will shared a sly grin, and I could see Frank and Reyna smile too. "Now I'm going to let you girls out early, because you made me proud. Go change and enjoy your lunch."

All the girls scattered, glad for her generosity. After changing as quickly as I possibly could, Isabelle and I walked out with Reyna, who Isabelle had struck up a conversation with. As we left the change room, Nico, Will and Frank were already waiting, and Jace joined us only moments later, huffing and putting his arm around me.

"How did you feel being beaten by me again, _Neeks_?" Reyna asked mockingly, shoving him playfully.

"Shut up, Reyna. We all know that I'm stronger." Nico replied, looking unfazed.

"Not true."

"True."

"Not tr-"

Will cut her off. "Can we all just agree that you're both equally strong?"

"No!" Nico and Reyna said in unison, though they did not continue the argument.

"Hey Reyna," Jace piped up, "How'd you come up with that idea?" Of course my boyfriend wanted to know how he'd been defeated. I rolled my eyes.

"A friend of mine gave it to me. She always says that surrender is a distraction, and one must prepare for anything."

"That's actually really smart. I'll have to remember that one." Jace said, surprising even me. Jace doesn't usually give into defeat well.

"That strategy saved my butt too many times to count," Frank commented.

"Gotta love Annabeth," Will finished.

"Annabeth? She's the girl with the long blond hair and grey eyes, right? The one that's dating the tall dude with black hair who broke up your fight," Isabelle motioned at Nico, "and looks like my brother?" She asked.

"That's the one." "You got into a fight?" Reyna answered, at the same time Will turned to Nico.

"It was just Jason, and it's not my fault he was being a jerk." Nico acted like that explained everything, which it apparently did.

"He supposedly really wanted to kill him." Jace piped in helpfully. "Threatened him with something about telling a girl named Thalia something that Jason had said about someone who shot him for hugging her."

Frank, Will and Reyna all recoiled in horror. "He must have really pissed you off." Will noted as the lunch bell rang, and the five of us walked away.

* * *

A/N: Full credit to Will and Nico's bantering goes to Rick Riordan. I took that directly from the Trials of Apollo, as I thought it would be a good fit for this chapter. Again, full credit to Rick Riordan for Nico and Will's bantering, which is from the Trials of Apollo.


	7. The Magic Cleaner

Hazel's POV:

I hated high school. I couldn't figure out how to use the million buttons on the new scientific calculator in math, no one could understand why I'd chosen to hand write instead of type my first thing for English, boys kept asking for my non-existent cell phone number, and when I told them I didn't have a phone, they looked at my like I was an alien. To sum it all up, it sucked.

On top of all that, I had no classes with any of my friends because of my age, and I was starting Grade 9 three days late, making me stick out like a sore thumb. At least at lunch, I could sit with my friends. Except lunch posed a whole new problem. How the Hades was I supposed to find them?

I spent the first five minutes wandering around, trying to find the cafeteria. I spent the next five minutes trying to get into the cafeteria. After that, it took ten minutes to finally locate my friends, who were sitting with a strange group of people all covered in tattoos.

I made my way over to them, weaving through people and tables. My curls bounced up and down as I dodged backpacks, trays and benches. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, I finally reached them, taking the empty seat in between Nico and Frank.

"Hey Hazel," Nico turned to me, ignoring something Will said, "How was your morning?" Nico and I got close after the war, and even closer on our "family bonding trip" as our father called it in L.A..

I glared at him in response as I tore into my lunch.

"That bad, huh?" He asked.

"Yeah. That bad."

Frank put his arm around me and gave me a small smile. "What was so bad?"

"To start, none of you are in any of my classes, I couldn't figure out how to work that stupid scientific calculator thing and guys kept trying to get my number, and I don't even have a phone." I sighed in exasperation, though Frank suddenly looked very alert.

"You know, you could have just said you had a boyfriend, right? Or did you forget about me?" He put his hand over his heart in mock hurt, and I chuckled.

"Of course I didn't forget about you." I leaned over and gave him a quick peck. I was starting to get more comfortable with the whole PDA thing.

"This is all touching," a sarcastic voice muttered, "but I'm just wondering who a lot of these people are." A dude with blond hair looked at all of quizzically, directing his speech to someone next to him with black hair. My brother glared at him.

"Jace," the guy with black hair said, "That's Percy and Annabeth, who I introduced you to earlier, and these are their friends."

"That's Frank, his girlfriend and my cousin Hazel, her half-brother and also my cousin Nico, his boyfriend Will, Reyna, my cousin Jason, his girlfriend Piper, Leo and his girlfriend Calypso," Percy added.

"I'm Alec, by the way," the black haired dude said, "and that's my sister Isabelle, my brother Jace and his girlfriend Clary. Oh, and that's Simon, Isabelle's boyfriend."

I guess I knew who everyone was now, and the group dynamic.

"So Hazel, what grade are you in?" Clary asked, shooting me a smile.

"9th," I answered, smiling back. I liked her already.

"Were you born in New York?"

"No I was actually born in New Orleans, then I lived in Alaska for a bit, then San Francisco and I only moved here a couple months ago. What about you?"

"New York born and raised," she said proudly.

"What about you, Isabelle?" I asked.

"Oh ya, Alec and I were born and raised in New York."

"Um, Izzy? I wasn't born in New York."

Isabelle smiled sheepishly, "Sorry big bro, I forgot." Alec glared at her, before breaking into a small smile at her embarrassed look.

"I was born in Europe, but our parents moved here when I was still a baby, before Isabelle was born," he explained.

"Our parents adopted Jace from Europe when he was ten," Isabelle added. "Why'd you move out to New York?"

"My mom died when I was younger, and my dad had left when I was born, so I was kind of lost for a bit. Then Nico found me, and he brought me to San Francisco, where we lived with some distant relatives for a bit. We both decided to move to New York to be closer to our cousins, who we only learned about at the time." I explained, trying to sneak around bits of information.

"What about you, Jace?" Percy jumped in. "Why'd you come to New York?"

Jace stiffened up a bit, "Oh, well, my mom died in childbirth and when I was ten, my dad died in front of me. He was friends with Alec and Isabelle's parents, and they took me in. They're my family." Jace explained.

"Me too." Nico said quietly. We all turned to look at him in shock. Nico never shared, especially not with strangers, and definitely not with strangers he disliked.

"Excuse me?" Jace asked.

"My mom died in front of me when I was little too. It sucks." The table fell into a complete silence, only interrupted a few seconds later by the ringing of Alec's phone.

He fumbled with it, quickly grabbing and putting it to his ear, "Hello? Magnus? What is with all the noise? ... Yes, uhuh ... just give him some pancakes- you're out of pancake mix?...Uhuh- I don't know, you'll figure something out. You're a smart person. I've gotta g- What do you mean he won't drink anything? ... Uhuh- Uhuh ... Put a bendy straw in it ... try the magic cleaner- uhu- Look, I've really got to go. I'm sure you'll figure something out. Goodbye." I heard something muffled on the other end, something that sounded like "no" and a lot of screaming and crying as Alec fumbled with his phone again before finally managing to shut it off.

"You do know he's going to kill you for that later, right?" Clary said, motioning at the phone.

Alec rubbed his temples, "Yeah, I know, but I just can't deal with the tantrums right now."

"What was that about the magic cleaner?" Isabelle moved closer to her brother, resting her arm in his shoulder.

"You know, the usual. Chocolate milk, pancake batter and grease on the walls and ceiling." How was that usual? I exchanged confused looks with the rest of the demigods.

Jace clapped Alec on the back. "You brought this upon yourself, brother."

"Wow Jace, real helpful," Alec rolled his eyes, punching Jace not very lightly on the arm.

I think the Fates had a sense of humour because at that exact moment Frank leaned forward and spilled an entire carton of chocolate milk all over the table and the floor. He looked up sheepishly. "Oops," he muttered, sending Alec a particularly apologetic look.

"It's ok. I've got a magic cleaner in my bag. Here you go." Alec reached into has bag, pulling out a big white sponge with coloured swirls all over it.

"Dude," Percy scrunched his eyebrows, "Why on Earth do you have that on you?"

"You don't wanna know." Alec and Jace answered at the same time.

"Woah!" Frank exclaimed, "This thing works great!" I examined where the milk once was, and I couldn't even find a trace of it.

"I know, right?" Alec smiled. "Wanna know the best part? Just rinse it under warm water and it'll be clean in about three minutes!"

"Cool!"

For the next fifteen minutes or so, Frank and Alec discussed the properties of the magic cleaner, as everyone else confusedly looked back and forth at the odd friendship that had just formed over spilt milk and a cleaning sponge.


	8. Dad Gets Around

Will's POV:

I got to music class, annoyed at being forced by my father to take this subject. Unlike most of my siblings, I was not a natural musician, even though my dad was the God of music. I got more of his healing talent. Musically, all I got was my supersonic whistle, which isn't very helpful in a class filled with instruments. I noticed two of the guys who sat with us at lunch, Jace and Simon, were also in this class, but none of my other friends were.

All the chairs were in a semi-circle around a big screen that was hooked up to a computer. I took a seat next to Jace, who was also in my gym class. "Hey," I nodded my head at them, and they both nodded back.

"Good morning, guys!" Mr. K, our music teacher, called. "I have to step out of the room for a few minutes," The whole class silently laughed, while two kids who were really good friends with obvious sexual-tension shot each other looks, because he was out of the room more than he was in it, "but we're going to continue our jazz unit." Mr. K was obsessed with jazz music, and insisted we learn it. "Instead of playing a professional musician for you, I want to play someone a little closer to your age. This kid is a little younger than you guys, and he plays jazz saxophone, I hope you like it." I got a sinking suspicion I knew who it was, and it was confirmed when Mr. K clicked play and an African American boy with cornrows shaped like DNA helixes appeared on screen.

Mr K. left the room, and as I put my head in my hands an groaned, Simon looked at me weirdly. "What's wrong?" He asked.

I groaned again, "That's Austin, my half-brother. All summer, and most of the year, all I hear is him playing. Besides, his ego's the size of the sun already, I don't need him to know that even teachers think he's good."

Simon and Jace looked at the screen then back at me, as if trying to figure out how we were related. "We both look like our mothers," I supplied, used to the odd looks given by new campers.

I made out the familiar walls of our cabin in the background, and I spotted my unmade bunk in the corner, covered in a whole bunch of medical supplies, with the blankets all bundled up. "Hey guys, I'm Austin." He said a few more things about the song before he started playing. Even I had to admit, my younger brother was really damn good at that saxophone. When he finished he took a bow, and the people around me were actually pretty impressed by his skill.

I was totally prepared for the video to be over, when I saw Kayla maker her way onto the screen, her green hair really bright against the walls of our cabin. "This is my half-sister, Kayla. I figured it was time you people met a little bit of my family." Clearly, Mr. K didn't watch until the end, otherwise he would have told us to stop it when Austin finished playing. "I have a ton of other half-siblings, but right now, it's just me, Kayla, and our older brother. Let's meet him."

Realization hit me like a freight train as I saw Kayla and Austin move towards my bunk, and I leapt out of my chair "Alright, shows over!" I announced. "Let's just stop it here!"

Unfortunately, one of my classmates pulled me out of the way, and I grimaced as I remembered what happened. I started wrapping and unwrapping the Ace bandage I usually kept on my wrist nervously. Austin and Kayla crept up to my bunk. "How does he sleep with all this stuff on him?" Austin started taking stuff off my bed. Bandages, tensors, a stethoscope, surgical thread and a special paste from my dad went flying across the cabin. As each thing went flying off my bed, I sunk a little bit lower into my chair.

"He slept through your saxophone, Austin. I think stuff on his bed is the least of his worries." Kayla leaned down and grabbed the blanket from my bed, sending it flying.

I watched as I leapt out of bed, shirtless, with a pair of lose sweatpants sitting on my hips, my blond hair wild around my head and a wild light in my blue eyes. I slipped lower into my chair as the people in my class looked from the screen to me, Jace smirked in my direction and I noticed a new light in a few of the girl's eyes as they looked at me shirtless. I internally groaned. Apollo insisted that all of his children have perfect abs, so for most of us, it actually takes little effort to get defined abs, myself included. Camp training was enough for a six pack to form on its own.

I had this wild, crazy look in my blue eyes as I grabbed the first thing I could- a ukulele- from my bedside table, brandishing it in front of me like a knife. "Woah!" Austin yelled, "Dude, put the ukulele down."

I started mumbling incoherently, "Dream- Dad- Prophecy- Mind- Apollo- Healing- ", and then a few more random noises, until I was quietly talking to myself. After my dad completed his trials, the oracle returned, and snippets of prophecies and futures would pop into my head sometimes, when I was too tried to push them away. Sometimes, they sucked, but sometimes, they were good. Usually, I mumbled to myself after to understand all the information in the prophecy. Kayla had woken me up from one of those dreams. Of course, living with the Stoll brothers for so long, I had assumed it was them, trying to prank me.

I cursed in Ancient Greek, something bad enough that my mother would have washed my mouth out with soap and my dad would have given me a high five for, before saying, "I thought you were the Stolls! I was fully prepared to smack you both upside the head! You should know not to wake me up!" I scolded my younger siblings, still not noticing the camera. My classmates were stifling laughter. I grimaced, noticing how much I was sounding like my mother. Jace was still smirking at me, though Simon at least looked empathetic. "Besides, I haven't slept in 36 hours, after Harley's last obstacle course! Do you even _know_ how hard it was to treat Jason's concussion? This is his third time being hit in the head with a brick this month!" The class looked at me even more strangely, and Jace raised his eyebrows at me. I blushed and slid lower.

Suddenly Kayla busted out laughing. "You should have seen your face! You looked like you were actually going to kill me with ukulele!"

"Kayla?"

"Yes?"

"Go back to Canada, please."

Kayla glared at me before laughing, and I couldn't help but join in.

"Will!" A voice a recognized called, busting into my cabin. "We need y-uhhh." Nico started, but trailed off, his eyes firmly on my abs.

A good few seconds passed of him just staring, before I snapped in my fingers in front of his face, "Nico? You were saying?" He tore his eyes from my abs and looked up to my face, blushing a little.

The class laughed again, and I blushed deeper. Jace smirked even wider, and I could see even Simon containing a snicker.

"Huh? Oh, uh, right. Well, Connor decided it would be a good idea to prank Cabin 5, and, well, let's just say that they were not pleased to find the barbed wire around the cabin turned to long strings of cotton candy, the boar's head above their door turned into a unicorn, their whole cabin painted pink and the mines exploding with glitter."

"Does Connor have a death wish?" I asked, trying to suppress a smile at his idiocy.

"Clearly. Sherman Yang already chased him around all of camp, yelling curses and threatening him. He eventually caught him, and, well, Connor needs some serious help. Like, he looks really bad."

"Let's go then!" I grabbed my emergency kit off my bedside table (at least the parts that weren't scattered all over the cabin) and made my way towards the door.

"Um, Will?" Austin asked. "Shirt?"

"Oh, right. Toss me one, fast." Austin tossed me an old sweatshirt and I quickly slipped it on. I stated running towards the door, only to trip on Austin's saxophone case, which was in the middle of the cabin. I fell flat on my face, and my siblings- along with the rest of the class- started laughing.

Simon and Jace busted out laughing, too.

Nico smirked in my direction. "I'm dating an idiot." Nico announced, giving me a hand and helping me up.

"Nico, I thought those weren't your type. Or does Percy not count as one?" Nico scowled at Kayla, who was laughing her head off along with Austin.

"You two be careful, or Connor's not going to be the only person needing Will's help."

I finally came to my senses, standing up and grabbing Nico, who had begun advancing on my siblings, by the waist, and yanking him out the door. "You're welcome!" I called over my shoulder, and you could faintly hear Nico cursing and threatening as I dragged him away.

"Well guys, that's my brother, Will. As you can see, he's in a bit of a rush right now, well actually he's in a rush a lot, but he's a cool dude. Anyways, those are my two siblings here. I'll introduce you to the other 5, 10, 15, 20- Kayla how many siblings do we have?"

"Like, 25ish." Kayla paused for a minute, as if thinking, before exclaiming, "Damn, dad gets around!" with way too much enthusiasm for my taste.

Austin started laughing, and I blushed so hard I think my scalp turned red, and he eventually turned back to the camera. "Anyways, by summer, you'll meet a bunch of my other half-siblings."

Austin then turned off the camera, and I was seething.

"I am going to kill him." I hissed through my teeth. Jace and Simon were laughing at me. "I didn't even know he posted this! Actually, I didn't even know he filmed this!"

Simon grinned at me, "Dude, and I thought my sister was embarrassing."

I put my head in my hands, and only then did I notice that the rest of the class was silent. "What?" I snapped.

"Do you actually have twenty five siblings?" One guy blurted, before a girl-I think his girlfriend-put a hand over his mouth.

I groaned again. "Yes. Actually, I probably have more. Let's just say that my dad is an interesting guy. And before you ask, yes I've met him, and no he's not a complete jerk. But he does, as my lovely sister put it, get around." Some guy closed his mouth quickly.

"Are you really dating that guy, Nico?" Some girl asked. Her hopes looked dashed when I told her I was.

One of the popular boys in our class-Zack, I think- started to speak. "Oh, I get it. You and him are a couple of f-" Suddenly, before I could blink, Jace was across the room, his hands around his throat. He was looking at Jace in shock and confusion.

It suddenly struck me how much Jace reminded me of a cat. Lazily lounging around, acting as if the world owed him something, before suddenly exploding into a lion, incredibly strong, fierce and powerful, claws out and ready to fight, almost impossible to singe-handedly beat. And terrifying when he wanted to be. "Say that word." Jace said through gritted teeth. " Come on, say it. I dare you." Jace's face was red with rage, and his long, thin, calloused fingers were firmly wrapped around this guy's throat.

"Jace, let him go." I said.

Jace looked at me in confusion, "But he was going to call you a-"

I cut him off, "I know, but I have to be better than him. This isn't how I deal with people like him." Jace still looked unconvinced.

"Jace, stop it. He isn't worth it." Simon's words seemed to start taking effect, as Jace began releasing him, before he suddenly seemed to remember something and turn back to him.

"The last time someone said that word to Alec, it was Robert, and Alec-"

"Jace, Will is not Alec. Alec is not here, and Alec also doesn't need you to fight his battles for him. That was a long time ago, and this boy is also not Robert, he is a mundane boy. Is a mundane boy really worth the attention of the great Jace Herondale?" Jace slowly released the boy.

"Guess not," he muttered, "Sorry Will."

I nodded to acknowledge his apology, but something Simon said captured my attention, and stirred something in me. _Mundane_. The word itself meant dull or boring, but I knew it also meant something from the mortal world, as opposed to the Heavenly one. The way Simon said the word, as if it were a noun rather than an adjective.

A memory stirred of when I was younger, about nine years old, before I made my way to Camp Half-Blood and found out that I was a demigod, the first time a monster had attacked me.

 _I had been wandering around a concert venue where my mom was singing. I was supposed to stay in her dressing room until she finished, then she would take me for barbecue at our favourite whole in the wall joint in downtown Austin. Except me, being the curious (and hungry) child of Apollo that I was, had snuck out of the room, and I was searching for the restaurant usually in the hotels my mom performed at._

 _When I finally found it, it was almost deserted, except for one couple at the table in the back corner and a couple of staff. People usually recognized me as Naomi Solace's son, especially in Austin, and would often give me free food. I didn't notice that the waiter serving me knew that my name was Will, even though my name was not information my mother gave publicly._

 _When the waiter offered to take me into the kitchen, I leapt at the opportunity to see something new. I didn't see the couple in the back get up and walk towards the kitchen, and I paid no attention to the door closing behind me._

 _I did, however, notice the absence of any cooks or chefs in the kitchen, "Where is everyone?" I had asked._

 _"Oh, it is just you and me, child of the Sun." The waiter took on this strange glint in his eyes, and I immediately backed away, fear kicking in. "Do not worry, little one. Soon, you will feel nothing at all."_

 _The monster leapt at me, changing form into something hideous and terrifying. I grabbed the first thing I could- a silver spoon- and hurled it at the monster's head. I nailed it in the eye- I had always had pretty good aim- and it wailed in pain._ If you've never been hit in the eye with a projectile spoon, then you can't understand how badly it hurts. Unfortunately, I speak from experience. (Fight with Nico. Spoon was the first thing he could find that he could throw without killing me. Don't ask).

 _I kept throwing silverware, ignoring the intense banging on the door, but I was rapidly running out, and as painful and annoying as silverware to the face was, it was only that- painful and annoying. It wouldn't kill it._

 _I threw my last fork, and braced myself to die._

 _"I will feast tonight!" The monster lunged, and just as I thought I was going to die, the door busted open. A glowing knife flew out of the hand of the woman in the doorway and pierced the monster, his claws only inches from my throat. My mouth opened wide as I stared at my saviours._

 _The women's black hair hung loosely around her shoulders, tumbling to the middle of her back in loose curls. She was slim and incredibly muscled. Her eyes were a dark brown, and they were unnerving me, like she was looking into my soul. The man was tall and built, with sandy blonde hair and brown eyes. Both of them had black tattoos snaking around any visible skin. "Good throw," The man said to the woman._

 _"Is it just me, or is the kid looking at us?" She whispered. "Hey kid, can you see me?" I nodded mutely at the person who saved my life._

 _"There's not way this kid is a Mundane, Jack." She spoke with a Southern drawl. "He can clearly see us and the demon. No Mundane, even one with really strong sight, should be able to see through glamour runes." The women said, gesturing to me._

 _"I don't know, Maria. He has no Warlock mark, is far too tanned to be a vampire, and he touched silver, so he's not a werewolf. He has no marks on him and clearly no training." The man-Jack-replied._

 _"He's probably, what, nine? We don't get our first marks until we're ten." Maria persisted._

 _"Fine then, what do you want to do with him? Take him back to the Institute with us? We can figure this out there." The man turned to me, "Hey kid-" But by the time he started speaking, I was already gone._

 _My mother was smart enough to teach me to know that when a stranger says something about taking me with them, I should run away as fast as possible, and I was smart enough to listen. I ran back to my mother's dressing room and hid behind the couch, which is where she found me, whimpering and afraid._

She never did ask about what happened that night, she just understood that it was scary and dangerous for me, and that I didn't want to talk about it. Not long after that, I went to Camp Half-Blood.

I never dwelled on that memory. Actually, I had pushed it down to the far corners of my mind, and never dwelled on it again, until that moment. Something from a dream came to mind, _A girl with long black hair and dark tattoos face to face with a monster, a silver whip glimmering in her hand. A boy with black hair and the same tattoos, with a bow trained on the same monster. Next to them stood a girl with blond hair and a sword of ivory, along with another black haired boy, though this time with a glowing bronze sword. "A new world, filled with Angels and demons."_

"You ok, Will?" Simon's concerned voice snapped me out of my thoughts. Jace stood next to me-when did he get over here?- and Zack was glaring at both Jace and me.

"Huh? Oh, ya, I'm fine." Both Jace and Simon seemed unconvinced, but they didn't ask me again. One word kept ringing through my head: _Mundane_. Something about it felt wrong and foreign, like an enemy language. Except mundane was English.

 _What is going on here?_ I thought to myself. I decided to keep these thoughts and memories to only myself, and dwell on them myself.

I didn't know it then, but eventually I'd get my answer.

 _Mundane._


	9. To Spite Me

Alec's POV:

After a week, we had gotten much close to Percy, Annabeth and their friends. Jace no longer complained quite so much about going to school (though he still complained), and I could tell that Isabelle enjoyed having other girls around. We had successfully been able to keep the Shadow World completely separate, until it all came crashing down the week after I first met Percy and Annabeth. And, of course, it was my fault. Well, it was kind of my fault.

I was sitting in English talking to Annabeth, and we were arguing over the finishing details on our Shakespeare project. I wanted the ending to be happy, she wanted it to be tragic. I was actually quite impressed with the story we'd come up with, but we could not decide whether the main character lived or died. I personally wanted everyone to live, but Annabeth thought that either the main character or someone close to them should've died at the end.

I was losing, and I started to get the feeling that there was no way I was going to win (like when I argue with Isabelle), when the classroom door banged open, and everyone turned their heads to see who had entered. I swear Annabeth tensed when she who was at the door, and as soon as I saw her, my face went almost as pale as hers, _Oh no_.

"Can I help you?" Mr. Blofis asked the girl at the door.

"No, but Lightwood can," Lily pointed a finger at me, and stalked forward.

Everyone turned to look at me as Lily bent down in front of me. I started to get angry that she had possibly broken my cover, but I took a deep breath and spoke as calmly and evenly as I could, "Lily, can't whatever you need wait a few hours until I'm finished here?"

"No, it's urgent! That's why I went to your apartment looking for you, but then Magnus said you weren't there, and then I was confused, and he couldn't leave because he was looking after the boys, and then cute little Max started throwing a tantrum because you weren't home, and Raphael would know what to do but I'm not Raphael and Raphael is gone and-"

I glanced at my classmates, who were looking incredibly confused at the exchange between me and Lily, and probably at her rambling. "Lily, calm down and take a deep breath. If it's so urgent that it can't wait a few hours, then you need to calm down and explain it to me." I used the most soothing voice I could muster, usually the one I used to calm Max down when he was having one of his tantrums.

Lily quirked an eyebrow at me, and only then did I realize I had asked a vampire to take a deep breath. "Ok," Lily took an incredibly deep and unnecessary breath-probably just to spite me- before continuing, "Maia's off on some date with Bat in the middle of nowhere, with no cell service, if you can believe it, and there's a huge fight about to go down in about ten minutes between her people and mine over territory! I told my people to back down but they won't do it unless they backdown too! Alec, you know someone will get hurt." She looked at me with pleading eyes.

I rubbed my forehead with my fingers before turning my eyes to Mr. Blofis. "I know this is an incredibly unusual circumstance, but do you mind if I duck out for just a couple minutes to help my friend out? Please?"

He looked unsure. "Oh, I don't know. This sounds like something an adult should be involved in. This sounds almost, dare I say, gang related?"

Lily snorted. "Trust me, it's not a gang, it's two families that hate each other, and the only person who can stop this right now is probably Alec. If you want to stop a bunch of innocent kids from getting hurt, just let Alec go for a few minutes." Lily put more force into her words, and I could tell that the _incanto_ worked when Paul's eyes kind of glazed over and he nodded. As I exited I looked over my should and spotted Percy and Annabeth, heads bent closely together, and Annabeth looking up to shoot me a confused and dirty glare. How she made one glare look questioning and scary, I really didn't know.

As soon as we were outside the school with no one near us, I let my anger out. "What were you thinking?" I nearly yelled. "Actually, you weren't thinking. You almost exposed downworld politics in front of a bunch of mundanes, and you could have just blown my cover, so thank you for that." Lily looked taken aback. It was rare that I got angry with her, let alone raised my voice at her. Not since that first time we spoke, when I was in bad mood because Jace had me fight a non-extinct extinct demon, and Lily just annoyed me. "Now that that's out, I've got about ten minutes before I have to be back there. What is it that you want me to do about the dispute?"

"I just need you to go there and tell them that the territory is under temporary control of the Nephillim, that there will be consequences if they don't back off, and that the dispute will be settled later today."

"Fine. How far is it?"

"Only a couple blocks. Running, we should be there in a couple minutes, tops."

I pulled my stele out of my backpack and took it to the inside of my arm, quickly drawing speed and agility runes. "Ok, I'm ready, lets go." I ran after Lily to as she sprinted ahead, and I kept hoping that this would be quick. Thankfully, after only five minutes of discussions with the angry vampires and werewolves, they backed off the land and agreed to debate over it later.

I ran back to the school as fast as I could, with Lily close behind. "Why didn't you go back with the clan?"

"I wanted to thank you. I couldn't have done that without you. I still feel so unsure about myself as a leader, and I miss Raphael. He was so good at leading us and I'm afraid that I won't be as good as him and-"

I put my hands on her shoulders, and that shut her up. "You're doing a great job, Lily. Keep doing what you're doing, and you're going to be such an incredible leader one day."

"Thanks Alec, I really appreciate it." She gave me a quick, sisterly kiss on the cheek before starting to walk away. I was smiling and shaking my head as she walked away when she turned and called out, "By the way, those boys of yours are so cute." I shook my head again, smiling a little wider this time.

As I turned to head inside, the door closed a little bit in front of me. My initial reaction was wondering how I could be so stupid and clueless. How had I not noticed the door opening in the first place? My second reaction was worrying about whether my cover had been blown. More importantly, who was watching? I didn't see anyone, but that didn't mean that no one saw me.


	10. Corn or a Pine Tree?

Jace POV:

"Something's wrong with Alec. His emotions are all over the place." I whispered to Izzy, who immediately looked alarmed. "In the last ten minutes or so, he's been confused, then he felt dread, then annoyance, then anger, then annoyance again, then happy, and now, he feels kind of panic-y. Actually, he feels really panic-y."

"That can't be good." Izzy whispered back. "Just a little bit more until the period is over, then we just have gym, and then we can talk to him at lunch."

"It's weird though. I felt a rush of something, almost as if he'd runed himself. But why would he do that?"

"I don't know. But we know he's ok and we know that he's alive, so it's ok." I couldn't tell if Izzy was reassuring me or herself, but it worked. I stopped focusing on the stupid mundane science teacher, who was going on about genetically modified corn or something, and instead focused on Alec. I focused on my bond to him, and how he was feeling. His panic started turning to a little bit of dread, and I just got a little more worried.

My concentration snapped as another argument in the class started. "Jason, would you just shut up, for once in your life?"

"I just asked a question." Jason said, way too innocently.

I could hear it in Nico's voice when he scowled at him. "I don't want to talk about it, Jason."

"But Nico, all I did was ask about the time in Venice with the corn and-"

Nico glared at Jason again, "I am not talking about the time with the corn in Venice."

Jason laughed again, "I can't decide what's worse, corn or a pine tree?"

"Sei proprio un coglione," Nico muttered under his breath, which shut Jason up. My Italian was rusty, but I recognized enough to know that Nico just called Jason a jerk. I swear the two of them never stopped fighting. They fought more than the Clave, and the Clave agrees on literally nothing, except stupid things like sending me here.

With the two of them finally done arguing in my ear, I could focus back on Alec, but I couldn't feel his emotions as well anymore. That should have been a good sign, because that usually meant he was calmer, but I couldn't help but worry about my brother.

I forced myself to stop thinking about Alec and to focus on the science teacher, who was now going on about genetically modified something else, when I a sharp pain in my left forearm made me jump and another pain in my left shoulder made me gasp. My pain tolerance is high, but I was not expecting that.

I felt eyes turn to me, and Isabelle's arm rest on my right shoulder. "Mr. Herondale? Mr. Herondale, are you all right?" My teacher was looking at me with kind, concerned eyes.

I forced a smile onto my lips through the pain and the worry, "I'm fine. Do you mind if I just step out for a second?"

"Oh, alright. Just be back soon, and I hope you're alright." As I left the room, I heard Isabelle mumble something about brothers and checking, before I found her outside the classroom with me.

"Jace, what's wrong? Is he ok?" Isabelle looked really worried.

"I felt a sharp pain in my left arm and shoulder. I jumped not so much because of how much it hurt, but more because of how surprised I was. It almost feels like someone is pinning his arm behind his back." As I spoke, little red marks appeared on my skin, in the shape of nails.

I felt a sudden rush of adrenaline, and the familiar ache of my parabatai in a fight without me by his side, and all of a sudden the pain and panic diminished, leaving a feeling of calm and relief. "I think he's ok now,.." The red marks remained on my arm, but faded a little.

"Let's get back to class now, before people start to get worried."

As we walked back to class, my mind was on Alec. _Where are you, Alec? What happened?_ The only thing I knew for sure was that I was going to kill him next time I saw him.


	11. Something Fishy

Percy's POV:

"Something smells fishy here," Annabeth whispered to me as Alec left the room with the girl.

I smiled sheepishly at her, "Sorry."

"No, not you Seaweed Brain!" I made an 'Oh' face, and turned my head, signalling for her to go on. "Something between Alec and that girl- What did he call her?- Lily. Something's off about her. You must feel that."

I couldn't help but agree with her. "As soon as she stepped into the room," I whispered, "My instincts started screaming to pull out Riptide. Now, I may not be the smartest guy ever," Annabeth snorted, "But my instincts about this sort of stuff are normally right. What do you think she is?"

"I swear I caught a glint of fangs, and did you see what happened to Paul? She spoke to him, his eyes glazed over, and he just agreed. I'm thinking _empousa_. What about you?"

"I think you might be right. You know what? I'm going to see if I can find him and follow him. Can I borrow your Yankees hat?"

"Why do you get to follow him?"

"Because," I gave her my famous lopsided grin, followed by my baby seal eyes, "you love me, I'm bored, and you actually understand what's going on here. Besides, we're just wasting time."

"Ugh, fine," Annabeth conceded, handing me her cap. "You're lucky I love you."

I left the classroom and headed the way I'd seen Alec go. I wasn't too hopeful that I'd find him, though, since he left the class five minutes before I had.

I got to the dead end school doors, the only place Alec could have gone. I didn't see him, but I decided I would wait and see if he came back.

About five minutes later, my waiting paid off. Alec and the girl both showed up. The girl said something, and Alec put his hands on her shoulders. A couple seconds later, she leaned up and kissed him on the cheek. He grinned at her as she started walking away, and his grin got bigger when she called "By the way, those boys of yours are so cute."

Alec turned to the door, and I tried to make my quick and silent escape. Unfortunately, the door had other ideas, and slammed shut behind me.

I silently cursed the Fates and my luck as Alec whipped his head around and looked right through me.

I held my breath, praying that he wouldn't see me as he made his way inside, his right arm up by his shoulder.

I held my breath as he passed me, but thank the Gods he didn't notice me. Just as I was sure that I was in the clear, something hissed " _Perssusss Jacksssson, I've been waiting for thissss moment. And what'sss thisss tasssty treat?"_

A figure darted out at Alec, landing behind him and pinning his arm behind his back. For a second, he looked surprised, before shocking me by elbowing the monster and flipping it over his shoulder.

I got a better look at it and groaned as I recognized the monster as one of the gorgons, still in a tattered uniform.

I decided to screw secrecy as I yanked Annabeth's cap off my head and Riptide out of my pocket, to go fight with him. "Didn't I kill you already? Like, 20 times? You'd think 20 times would be enough to keep you dead for at least a couple years!" Alec looked at me in surprise as Riptide appeared in my hand, and the gorgon took advantage of it.

From the ground, it tackled Alec, yanking him down. A cheese and wiener fell out of it's pocket. " _Noooo_!" It wailed, " _That wassss my lasssst one_!"

Alec hit the ground but rolled back up to his feet. He reached his right hand back, and a bow and quiver shimmered into existence. Now it was my turn to be surprised.

" _Nephilim_ ," the gorgon hissed, as she noticed one of the black tattoos on Alec's neck.

I quickly got over my shock and lunged at the monster with Riptide, slashing hard to the right. As my blade connected, an arrow slid into the monsters eye, and it exploded into gold dust.

I leapt out of the way and managed to avoid getting dirty, but Alec, who had made his way towards the monster after shooting his arrow, got covered. He look startled at the gold dust, before turning his face to me. "What the heck was that thing? I've been fighting demons my whole life and I've never seen that!"

"That was one of the gorgons," I answered leaning down to pick up the vials of blood that appeared when she exploded. "One of these vials will kill and one of them will heal. I don't know which one is which. Now let's get the dust of you and get back to class before Annabeth pulverizes both of us. Though I'm warning you, Annabeth has lots of questions, and that dust is _impossible_ to get out."


	12. One Time in Albania

Nico's POV:

My life and Jason had a lot in common; sometimes, I really hated them. I particularly hated them both on the days Jason decided to use my life experiences to torment me. That is why, as soon as my science teacher (whose name I didn't and still don't know) brought up corn, I knew that it was going to be one of those days. Jason refused to shut up and stop making jokes about corn and Venice, but he went too far when he decided to bring Persephone, my oh so lovely stepmother, into the mix. It was then and there that I vowed to kill him, because Persephone was a sensitive subject. Jason got lucky though, and the bell ran before I could strangle him.

As I walked to the gym, my mood did not improve, and I could feel the shadows pulling, tugging, lengthening, trying to get to me and wrap around me. Hazel gave me an odd look as we passed each other in the halls, no doubt noticing the shadows' strange behaviour. I gave her an I'll-explain-later look, and she nodded at me.

Of course, I wouldn't be Nico Di Angelo if my morning didn't get even worse. When I got to the change rooms to change for Phys-Ed, I found that the stalls that I usually changed in were locked from the inside, and I was not about to climb under there. This was a boys change room, and who the hell knew what had been on the floor in there. That unfortunately meant that I'd have to change outside, with the huge group of boys. If I was at camp or with my friends, it would have been fine, but I'd fought through two wars, and you don't fight wars without getting scars. My friends all had scars and understood where I got them from and how, but the mortals had no idea and never would.

I sighed to myself and decided to get it over with, before the change room got even more packed. I quickly pulled my shirt over my head, trying to ignore the whispering that ensued. I had scars crisscrossing my back from run-ins with hellhounds, dracnae and the occasional telkhine, among other monsters (and even a couple scratches there from Will, but these guys didn't need to know that). I definitely caught a couple looks for the claw-marks on my bicep from the werewolves, and the long scar that went down the entire length of my abdomen (made by Percy during a sparring match) got even more attention. I shot all of the guys staring a death glare, which made them look away real fast, but as soon as I left the change room, I just knew they would be talking about my scars. I figured that the whole school would probably know about them by the end of the week.

Somehow, the next few minutes managed to make my day suck more. When I went into the gym, Will wasn't there yet, and neither were any of my other friends, except Frank. While I liked Frank, and he was a nice guy, we didn't really have anything to talk about. The only thing we had in common was Hazel, and what do you say to your little sister's boyfriend, who's older than you are? Then, Jace had to walk in, and just the sight of that guy made me want to deck him in his pretty little arrogant face, though thankfully today he was quieter than usual. In science class, he'd yelped out loud and left the room, quickly followed by Isabelle, and they both came back in looking worried. I'm no Piper or Annabeth, but even I could see that something was up.

Thank the Gods, Reyna popped out of the change room a minute later, followed by Isabelle and the redheaded girl -Clary- meaning I had someone to talk to. This sucked even more, because I had actually been excited going into this ckass. We were supposed to be playing capture the flag that period, since everyone had really enjoyed it the last time (although the demigods crushed everyone else). "Hey Nico!" Reyna called, coming over to me.

"Hey, Reyna," I answered tiredly, still annoyed about the disaster that was my morning.

"What's up with you? Normally you're brooding, but this is a lot, even for you, especially around me."

I groaned, "The usual. Life hates me."

"Neeks!" I heard someone shriek, barrelling into me, and grabbing me tightly.

"Will," I grunted in response, "What is wrong with you?"

"What? A guy can't be excited to see his boyfriend?"

"Whatever, Solace, just get off me." I shoved him off.

Will turned to Reyna, "What's got his toga in a twist?"

Reyna answered before I could, "Scars and Jason." I was a little surprised she got the scars part, but Reyna could read me better than almost everyone else. That, and she had super sharp hearing and wasn't stupid. The other guys in the change room weren't exactly being discreet with the pointing and their attempts at whispering.

Will sighed, "Scars suck, I know, but they're part of you and they show your bravery." He didn't go on, since I'd heard the scar speech about a thousand times. "Now, what did Jason do this time?"

"He brought up my stupid stepmother." Will and Reyna both winced. "You know, next time he brings her up, I'll just bring up his. Let's see how he likes, having her royal highness, Queen of the bit-

"Watch your language, Cupcake!" A new voice barked, making me turn to Reyna in shock, whose wide eyes matched mine. "The cow goes moo! Stupid Valdez!" The megaphone screamed.

Slowly, I turned around, coming face to face with a short, old, slightly pudgy Satyr.

"Coach Hedge?" Frank muttered in disbelief, eyes trained on the megaphone. I hadn't seen that thing in ages.

"That's right, cupcakes! Did you miss me?" Only then did I notice Coach Hedge's shirt, which was that awful shirt that I also owned. It was so loud and colourful, it made me want to throw up. He noticed me noticing his shirt and he smiled, "Like it, kid? I heard you've got one too!" I glared, as Reyna stifled a laugh, probably remembering me in that stupid shirt.

"Alright, Cupcakes!" He said into the megaphone, addressing the rest of the students.  
My name is Coach Hedge, and today, I- am your father." The voice changed to Darth Vader's and the whole class busted out laughing.

"I am going to kill Valdez!" Hedge dropped the megaphone and just shouted instead, something that he was good at. "Anyways, today, I will be substituting for both of your gym teachers, since both of yours are absent at the golf tournament. You know, it's a little unfair. They get to hit things with a club, meanwhile I'm stuck here, with you brats. I guess live targets are always more fun to hit with a club anyways. " The class took a step back, except for the demigods, who were all stifling laughs. "Though," He added as an afterthought, "I do prefer baseball bats."

Clary was looking at Hedge confusedly, like she was trying to figure him out, Isabelle looked bored with him, like she'd seen far stranger things than a short, pudgy gym teacher claiming to like hitting people with clubs and bats, and Jace was looking at Hedge inquisitively, smirking slightly, like he was somewhat amused by this violent old man. My expression turned a little sour again. I may not always love Hedge, but he had saved my life multiple times, saved our quest and subsequently the camp, and he was also a damn good father to Chuck.

I moved to step towards Jace to slap that smirk off his face, when Will put a hand on my shoulder and pulled me back. "Don't," He warned me, his blue eyes steady and unflinching on my eyes. I knew from his tone that he was serious, and he was rarely serious. For Will, serious meant important.

I glared at him anyways, "Why? Look at his expression. He sees Coach Hedge as amusing, and I won't stand for it. Hedge is my friend and I owe him my life. I won't sit down and let Jace look at him like a cat looks at a mouse."

Will shook his head, "You know, you two may be a little more alike than you think."

I glared again, "Jace is a self-righteous, self-obsessed jerk. Are you trying to tell me something?"

Will didn't laugh. "Seriously, Jace is really protective about people he cares about. In music class the other day, someone was going to call me, well, you can guess the word," I grimaced-I'd heard it enough to know what word he meant- and nodded, "And he almost killed the guy." I looked on in surprise. "He jumped on him, and started going on about the last time someone said it to Alec, and Simon had to talk him down." I could tell Will was leaving something out, but I let it slide. Everyone had their secrets.

"Wait," I thought suddenly, "Is Alec gay?"

Will shrugged, "I guess. Anyways, promise to back off Jace for a bit. He's really not that bad a guy."

I sighed, "Alright fine."

Will pulled me in for a hug, a "Thanks" whispered into my hair.

"Alright, alright, cut it out! Today, we're gonna play capture the flag, except, instead of tagging to capture the other team, it's tackling! Doesn't that sound like fun?" I rolled my eyes. Of course Hedge found a way to make it more violent.

"But sir," A girl said, "Couldn't someone get hurt, or crushed?"

"Absolutely!" Coach Hedge said, with way too much enthusiasm for my liking, "That's the fun part! Besides, almost getting crushed by something was bigger than you? That's the thrill of it! I remember this one time in Albania-" Reyna and I locked eyes, and came to a silent agreement. Together, we both tackled Hedge.

"We agreed never to discuss Albania." I hissed in his ear.

"If you speak of it, I will make sure that all the powers of Rome hunt you down as long as you live," Reyna added.

"Ok, ok. Gods, you guys need to chill." Together, we got off Hedge, and I turned to face the confused and fearful eyes of my classmates. I fell silent. I was never good in crowds, or with people. I might have been able to lie my friends and to ghosts, but strangers may as well have been a drakons with the way they paralyzed me.

Thankfully, Reyna had a pro poker face, and was a great liar, particularly in front of crowds. "Coach Hedge asked us earlier today to demonstrate why you must always pay attention while playing this game, as you can get tackled unexpectedly at any moment." Her tone was reasonable and final, as if this was fact, and could not be disputed. I recognized the tone as one she used when leading the senate, or making important decisions. It made everyone want to listen.

Coach Hedge dusted off his shirt, looking at me and Reyna apprehensively. "Thank you for that demonstration. Now, let's split into teams. Nico and Will, I want you to be team captains." Will and I both started to complain, but Coach Hedge cut us off with a hand. "You will not be on the same team, after what happened last time in the forest."

I felt my cheeks start to heat up, and Will slowly started smiling, as if he was remembering that particular-um- _incident_. Surprisingly, Frank also started turning red, and I couldn't figure out why, until I remembered that it was him who had found us, tangled together on the forest floor.

"Yes, you know what incident I am referring to. Honestly, first Percy and Annabeth in the stables, then you two in a forest. I am apparently failing at my job of keeping you children focused! You know, maybe I should start-"

"Coach?" Will said.

"Eh?"

"You realize you're now the one going off on a tangent, and distracting us. Can we just play?"

"Oh, fine, go ahead."

I immediately picked Reyna, knowing that she was strategic, competitive and inventive. Will picked Frank, which was a smart move. I picked Isabelle, simply because I didn't want to be on the same team as Jace, and that worked out when Will picked him. I grabbed the redheaded girl, Clary, who I knew was Jace's girlfriend, which could give us an advantage. She was also small, meaning it was easier for her to evade capture. Will and I continued to pick until everyone was divided up.

Coach Hedge took us outside into the wooded park near the school, and split the territories down the middle. "You guys have ten minutes to discuss flag placements and strategies. The rules are really simple: the flag has to be visible, defenders must remain ten feet away, and when you get tackled, you go back with the other team, until someone rescues you. You win when you bring the other team's flag across the boundary line. Understood?" Everyone nodded, and we all moved to our sides.

Immediately, I turned to Reyna. "Any ideas?"

"A few, but Frank's on the other team, so we'll have to be careful."

"Why's that?" Clary asked.

"Because, Frank knows most of my strategies."

"You have strategies for capture the flag?" Someone asked incredulously.

"Our camps take capture the flag very seriously. Winning is important, because bragging rights, first pick of desserts and best medics after the game. Camp gets violent."

"I wish Annabeth was with us. She's been playing and strategizing this since she was seven. It'll be hard with Frank on the other team, however, I've got a couple strategies he doesn't know. After all, I have Hylla for a sister, and I've been in charge a lot longer than him."

"How is Hylla?" I suddenly realized that Reyna hadn't mentioned her in a while.

"She's doing well. Continuing to build her resources and fortune. Give me a minute to think through some strategies we discussed. Last time we spoke, we discussed a lot. She was in a violent mood, after San Juan." I remembered San Juan with a lot of hate. I had been so afraid of the stupid Hunters taking away another person I cared about, and then they had gone and kidnapped all of us. Then we were chased by Orion, the psycho misogynistic hunter giant, who then went and murdered half the girls on that island. San Juan sucked.

Everybody was silent for a moment, until Reyna slowly grinned. "You've got an idea?" I guessed.

She nodded. "A good one. Anyone here interested in climbing that tree?" Reyna pointed to a tall tree of to the left, and Isabelle immediately volunteered. "Hedge said the flag had to be visible, and we have to be at least ten feet away. By putting that flag ten feet up, it allows us to stand at the base of the tree, and have people positioned in trees around the flag. That will make it difficult to get the flag."

"It won't work." Isabelle said, and I winced. Reyna was not used to being question.

"Why is that?" Reyna asked, surprisingly calmly.

"Jace will get around our defence." Everyone looked skeptical. "I grew up with Jace. I've lived with him for years. I've seen him do some crazy things, like jump off roofs, jump from tree to tree. He'll do almost anything, especially to win. I'm also his sister. Like you said, bragging rights are important. He'll find a way."

"She's right," Clary said. She had been so quiet, I'd almost forgotten she was there. "Jace hates losing, especially to Izzy, and he has more mobility than a cat."

Reyna closed her eyes for a minute. "Isabelle, since you know Jace so well and grew up with him, could you defend against him?"

"I could try, but I can't guarantee it'll work. Clary and I together should be able to pull it off."

"I don't like using two people on one. Are you sure you can't defend against him with just one of you?" This was why I needed Reyna. She was good at weighing options and the costs.

"The only person who stands a solid chance against Jace one on one is our brother, Alec, and that's just because he usually knows what Jace will do before he does it. Like I said, I could try, but there's still a good chance it might not work."

"In short, she's sure," Clary confirmed. "And so am I!" she added hastily.

Reyna pressed her lips. "Fine then," she said in her very final tone, the way she did when she had approved new battle plans and formations.

"Now that that's settled, we need fast runners to try and get their flag. If we're leaving Isabelle and Clary on defence, that still leaves us with about 26 players to work with. We need more than just Isabelle and Clary, though. Any football or rugby players here?" A couple people raised their hands.

"Anyone with siblings here?" Isabelle asked, and more hands went up.

"What do siblings have go do with tackling?" I asked, incredibly confused.

Reyna looked at me like I was stupid. "You're telling me you've never fought with your sister?"

"I haven't exactly known about my half-sister that long, have I? Hazel and I don't fight. And before Hazel," I broke off, thinking of my big sister, "Well, let's just say I was too young and reliant to think about fighting with her." I made sure that my tone was fierce, leaving no room for pity. Even though I still avoided talking about Bianca, it was getting easier, and the more I did it, the easier it became.

Isabelle's look was that of understanding, though thankfully I saw no pity on the face of her or Clary. Around the class, though, I got a couple of pitying looks, and a few who just looked confused.

"Anyways," I continued, "anyone down for dodging tackles and possibly getting tackled?" A few hands went up. "Reyna, you down to run defence?"

She grinned at me in a wicked way, meaning that, yes, she was very ready to run defence. "That's settled. I'll run point on offence, Reyna on defence. You guys," I pointed to a group of guys and girls who were either football or rugby players, or were broad-shouldered and violent looking, or had volunteered earlier, "You guys stay defence. Tackle and keep them away from the flag. Reyna will explain her plan for defences. Everyone else is on offence with me. Our goal is to not get tackled and to get the flag. Come with me."

I lead the offence away so we could discuss the plan I had, as Reyna was doing with her team. I saw Isabelle scurry up a tree as if she were part squirrel. Reyna walked over, and quickly whispered her plan in my ear, until rejoining the defence as my mouth slowly slid into a grin.

"So what's the plan?" One of the (highly competitive) girls asked, a glint I had come to associate with her winning in her eyes.

"I know Will, and he knows me. He's going to expect me to use you as a distraction and sneak around in the shadows Instead, I'm going to be a distraction. Who's the fastest here?" All the girls turned to a girl named Priya, and all the guys turned to look at a boy named Ben. "Everyone else will know you're the fastest?" They both nodded. "Perfect. You're also going to be distractions."

I continued to explain the plan. First, a couple people would go in and find the flag, then whoever didn't get tackled would come back and report its location. A quarter of the offence would be the initial charge, then I would slowly follow, pretending to sneak around to draw out Will and maybe even Frank. The next quarter would run the perimeter, drawing more defenders away. The two fastest would go in, hopefully drawing more defenders with them, and would lead the defenders in a long, pointless chase. Another quarter would run in and climb their trees, acting as scouts. While the defenders were distracted, the last quarter would run in, positioning themselves in a long line, so that the flag could be passed along the chain until back in our territory. Everyone was grinning by the time I finished. It was a smart plan.

Coach Hedge blew the whistle, and we took off.

I made sure that all of my scouts and decoys were in place before I took off into the woods. I snuck around the shadows on the outskirts of the other team's territory. I smirked when I caught sight of Will's mop of blond hair inching its way towards me. A few minutes passed and I continued to pretend to sneak around to get the flag. In reality, I was just moving Will away from our flag. Suddenly, I tensed. A low growl came from a patch of trees next to me, and I changed directions towards the noise, hiding behind a bush.

I felt Will slide in beside me, but I didn't spare him a look. "You heard it too?" He asked.

I nodded, still not looking at him. I reached into the shadows and I felt my hand rest on cool metal. I grabbed it and yanked, feeling pleased with myself that my new trick had actually worked. My hand closed around the hilt, and from the shadows emerged three feet of wicked sharp stygian iron. I gave Will the signal and we both crept forwards, my blade out in front, the game momentarily forgotten.

I prepared myself as the bushes rustled, and I raised my sword, ready to chop, when the bushes exploded. I immediately stopped myself, though, as I had realized that I was about to decapitate a rabbit. Will started cracking up, and I gave him a half-hearted glare. "It wasn't funny, Will."

He started laughing more, "Nico, you almost just decapitated a bunny. You drew your sword on a freaking _bunny_." I glared for another second but I couldn't help but join in. Will's laugh was contagious.

After a few more seconds of laughter, I turned around, ready to win a game, and Will followed. Them the bushes really exploded, and I turned around to come face to face with a hellhound. "You've got to be kidding me," I moaned, then slashed up with my sword.

The hellhound managed to dodge my blow, so I advanced. Will let out a piercing whistle, disabling the monster, and me momentarily. After about a second, I was fine, and I stabbed at the monsters chest. As my sword entered its chest, a streak of gold came hurtling over the monster, leaving faster than it came. The streak landed, revealing Jace, who was looking at me and Will with suspicion.

He walked over to the pile of monster dust and drew a dagger out of it. "What did you do to it?" He pointed his dagger at the golden dust.

"What do you mean what did I do to it? I killed it." One thing I really didn't like was people doubting my abilities. I'd had enough of that in my lifetime.

"Yeah, I got that part, but why is it dust? The demons I kill, they leave nasty little carcasses, not dissolve into little piles of sweepable dust."

"Demons?"

"Do you have ears? Yes, demons. Clearly, you've killed them before, since you seem to know what that was. I've been doing this for a long time, but I don't recognize that thing."

"That's because it isn't a demon. Where I come from, we call that a monster, that particular one being a hellhound."

He snorted, "What do you mean 'where I come from'? All Shadowhunters worth their broadsword calls it a demon."

"Shadowhunter?" The word sounded familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

"Yes, shadowhunter. Also, monster, really? That's the best you could come up with? What does it do, hide under your bed and in your closet? Make noises and give you nightmares?"

The little comment about nightmares took it too far, and Will knew it, because he got between Jace and I before I could hit him, "Hey, let's all stay calm. Let's all put our weapons away, take a deep breath, and talk about this."

I glared, "Jace, why don't you go first. What the Hades are you?"


	13. Speaking Greek

Simon's POV:

Math class was torture. Sheer, horrifying, gut-wrenching, mind-numbing torture. As my teacher went on and on about parabolas and slopes, I couldn't help but think how useless this information was to me. Sure, once upon a time, maybe I could have used it, if I was going to get a mundane job in the mundane world. But now, as a shadowhunter, the only arcs I had to worry about was where my arrow would land, my sword would chop, and that demon tail would slice. It didn't help that I hardly understood any of it, anyways.

My least favourite classmate, Leo, on the other hand, seemed to be doing great at it. "C'mon, Pipes, it isn't that hard. All it is is y=a(x-s)(xt) for x-intercept form, then y=a(x-h)2k, with the a representing the multiplication of the step pattern, s and t being the two intercepts, h as the x value of the vertex and k as the y value of the vertex."

Piper looked at him as if he were speaking Greek, "Leo, I'm dyslexic. Hell, Leo, you're dyslexic. How are all of these letter and numbers not jumbling around on the page for you? I don't understand it."

"It's the same way you can speak French, Piper. You got the language of love, I got the language of building and engineering. It just makes sense to me, ya know? Ever since I was a kid, math was just one of those things that I got, same with physics. Besides, I learned this years ago."

"You already knew this?" Piper asked.

"Beauty Queen, I built a giant catapult. Do you think that I, Mr. McShizzle himself, would build a giant catapult before understanding how to calculate where my big, explode-y projectile would land?"

"Yes," Piper answered immediately.

Leo put his hand on his chest in mock hurt, "Wow, Beauty Queen, thanks for the faith." When Leo pulled his hand away, I could have sworn that I caught flicker of flame in Leo's palm. His hand seemed to burn for a second before it quickly extinguished. I shook my head. After all of my recent encounters with demons, I was probably just imagining things.

I went back to my work, but continued to overhear Piper and Leo's conversation, "Leo, is there any other way you could explain it to me?"

"Ok, so you know how, when you throw your dagger, you just know where it's going to land, because of how you throw it?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, this is just like that. Let's start with the x-vertex form. Think of this vertex as your arm, and the grid is the air your dagger flies through. The other vertex is the dummy it lands in. This "a" represents the trajectory the dagger flies at. Make sense so far?"

"I think so,"

"Ok, so now imagine there's a standard it flies at. It goes up 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, et cetera. If there's a 2, it's like you doubled the angle of your throw, and it goes up 2, 6, 10, 14, et cetera, and the same goes for three and four and whatever other number you might put there. Do you get it now?"

"I think so. So, if I throw my dagger triple the normal height, I'll get-" Then Piper cut off, and I heard the sounds of her pencil scratching the paper. For all Leo's weirdness and how obnoxious he was, the dagger metaphor actually made a lot of sense to me.

After thinking of it Leo's way, closing my eyes, picturing the dagger in my hand, watching it hit the target, seeing the angle it flew at, I found it a lot easier to figure the equations out. The rest of the class went off without a hitch, until about fifteen minutes before the bell rang. I had just finished my homework, which left me time to think. Now, the words Simon and thinking do not usually go well together in a sentence. When I think, bad things tend to happen. Most of my worst ideas have happened after thinking (namely, the whole Maya-Isabelle situation, to start).

So when I started dazing off, thinking about Leo's ingenious dagger metaphor, it struck me that Leo and Piper, two non-shadowhunters, found it easier to understand math when pointy-objects were involved. It then struck me that Leo told Piper to picture throwing her own dagger, meaning she actually owned a weapon and knew how to use it. Then I thought of the fire, and my mind wandered back to the start of the semester, with Piper's unusual voice. Suddenly, it all clicked. Not mundanes not mundanes not mundanes not mundanes, my mind screamed at me, over and over, as my eyes blew wide.

I forced myself to calm down.

You are a shadowhunter, I told myself, and you will handle this like one. "Hey Piper, hey Leo, do you guys mind giving me a hand at the beginning of lunch?"

Leo and Piper both looked cautious, "What can we do for you?" Piper asked.

I took a breath, "I just don't exactly understand this, and I overheard Leo teaching you. He seemed to really know what he was doing, and you seem to really get it to, so I was just wondering if you guys would mind helping me out?"

Leo instantly relaxed "Yeah, sure man, whatever. I'm down." Piper still had her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Thanks so much. Do you guys wanna meet at the picnic table around back? It's quiet back there."

"Sure," Leo grinned easily.

I grinned back, "Great. See you there."

I immediately whipped out my phone and texted Clary and Izzy, Meet me at the picnic tables behind the school, start of lunch, be armed but not visibly. I'll explain later"

I got a 'k' from Clary and a 'sure' from Izzy, and I prepped myself. I had a seraph blade safely stowed in my backpack if it came to that, and I knew Clary and Izzy would be great backup.

When the bell rang, I rushed out of the class to my locker, and straight outside. I got there about 3 minutes later, and Izzy and Clary were both waiting for me, along with Leo and Piper. Startlingly enough, Jace was there, alongside Will from our music class and that Nico kid, and I could see Alec making his way towards them, covered in a gold dust, Percy and flanking him. Upon her arrival, Annabeth's eyes narrowed, "What on Earth is happening here?"


End file.
